Category: PostGrad

I am obsessed with all these sipping and crafting nights that are popping up recently. Plant Nite was such a fun time! Basically, you are given the materials to create an adorable succulent arrangement while being able to sip on some drinks and socialize. You can check out the one I attended in Central New Jersey at their Facebook page.

The night starts with a cute little oath about keeping dirt out of our drinks and not saying the word moist (yuck!), then you are given step by step instructions on how to make the perfect terrarium for your succulents and how to care for them!

I went with my mom, but this could be a great night with any family member, friends, or significant other! You can check out pictures on their Instagram page here. Anyone would enjoy this, my mom isn’t the most social person (and I have inherited that trait), but we got along so well with the instructor and our table. My mom even took pictures like a true blogger!

I’m super happy with my final product, it’s currently sitting on the windowsill in my office. I’ve been wanting to do a Plant Nite for a while now and was so glad to attend this one, the crowd and the drinks were great! This was seriously my ideal night out and I can’t wait to go to another one.

I received a ticket to this event in exchange for an honest review, all opinions are mine.

I think we talk a lot of talk about how we want men and women to be equal and many men say that they support women 100%. But I don’t think they really know what that support entails. I saw the following images on Twitter and was disgusted with the reaction from guys who are telling her to be more humble.

Because I have guys in my life telling me to be more confident, that I’m beautiful, that I should stop being so hard on myself. And I don’t believe them, I have a hard time accepting my appearance and if I say “thank you” to a compliment, I’m internally saying “you’re wrong.”

But the second a girl actually loves herself and gains confidence, men and women come out of the woodwork to tear her down. So which is it? You support us, but we shouldn’t get too ahead of ourselves?

If you want to actually support women, you have to accept them. This applies to men and women. You have to let them be themselves, love themselves. You can’t tear them down and call them sluts for sleeping with a few guys or call them egotistical for loving themselves. Because let’s be honest, if you’re posting a picture of yourself on snapchat you already know you look good in it. You have to accept that not all women are weak and in need of your help. But some are.

You have to support them all, not just the ones that fit the mold that you like.

The stereotypical millennial is lazy, entitled, ruining relationships, and most of the things that were built for us. This stereotype mostly comes from the fact that we do things differently than our parents.

I went to college, got an internship when I graduated, got a job then got a better job. Not exactly what I call lazy. I started paying off my stereotypical millennial student loans and immersed myself into the 9-5 culture.

And it’s not easy for me. It’s not easy to work 5 out of the 7 days a week, to work for most of your life, to make your job your (basically) number one priority. It’s not easy for me to wake up early in the morning then work nonstop until it’s time to go. You don’t go at your own pace, there is a schedule and rules and you are supposed to follow them.

So in some ways, I’m the stereotypical millennial who wants to make their own schedule and work from my bed. Is it realistic? No, but a girl can dream!

Just because we dream, doesn’t mean we’re lazy. And it doesn’t mean all of us have the same dream. I know many people who thrive in a pressured 9-5 environment, but I’m just a stereotypical millennial when it comes to this!

I love change in the sense that I don’t like to stay in the same place for too long and am always looking to move forward. I hate change in the sense where things I like and got comfortable with can’t stay that way.

Sometimes, life gets busy and we have less time for each other. Whether it’s friends, family, or significant others. And you want to support people through those busy times, but only if you feel supported in return. Otherwise it gets lonely, otherwise you feel like you’re heaving in effort but getting left in the dust.

Busy seasons are an adjustment. Sometimes they last forever, sometimes it’s just for a couple of weeks. And you have to take that change and roll with it and hope that you can either assimilate or that it will go back to normal soon.

When others get busy and when you get busy, it gets lonely. There’s a lot of pressure on both sides to either be supportive or get everything done that you need to. You might lose people along the way and that’s okay. Not everyone is meant to be in your life forever, not everyone can handle the stress that comes with busy schedules and making time.

When life gets busy it’s not just one aspect, it’s the whole thing. It’s your thoughts running a mile a minute, it’s your work demand, it’s your friends and family and significant other not having time for you. It’s a heavy lift that not all of us are cut out for.

Lately, the goals I’ve set for myself have become harder and harder to reach. That could push some into working harder and hungrier to complete their list, but for me it’s just a disappointment.

I know numbers and milestones don’t mean everything in life, but they are a good motivator to always strive to be your best self. When those things don’t budge, it becomes easier to focus on all the things that are wrong rather than the many things that are right.

I’ve always been a big supporter of making goals to keep life interesting, even if it’s just very tiny attainable goals that will boost your ego a bit. And I’ve been making what I thought were attainable goals, but I still can’t seem to hit them. The thought of lowering the standards is depressing on top of the bummer it is that I can’t hit any of my goals in the first place.

I’m losing motivation and I just need to suck it up and accept the fact that I need to go back to the basics, like I have to do with many things in my life right now. Because once I get into this funk there’s no way I can get out of it just by continuing down the same path. Sometimes we just have to admit defeat and start over, sometimes these experiences can be humbling, but they mostly just suck.

So, my sisters gave me a gift card to Stitch Fix for my birthday and I was pretty excited about it. I hate shopping mostly because I hate trying things on, so this seemed perfect. Stitch Fix evaluates your style and then sends you a box of clothes as often as you’d like to buy or send back. You pay a $20 styling fee and that will go towards anything you buy, but if you don’t buy anything you lose that $20 which stinks.

I got my first box over a month ago and was beyond excited only to be completely let down. I hated everything except for the sandals they sent me, which were just generic any girl would probably like them. The box seemed like it was picked out for a 40 year old mom with two kids. I questioned why I even bothered to fill out the style profile.

But I gave them another shot because getting packages excites me and I still had gift card money. The second box came and…I hated it. Same kind of style was sent to me again even though I sent specific feedback saying I wanted edgy styles and the clothes they sent me didn’t flatter me at all in both boxes. I did keep a pair of jeans which fit me beautifully, were a little pricey, but worth it because they’re my new favorite pair.

If I didn’t have money left on my gift card, I would have been out at this point. Why bother telling someone what you like if they aren’t going to bother to read it? They even have access to your Pinterest and Instagram. What does the $20 styling fee go towards if you aren’t actually tailoring the style to me?

I just got my third box and swear I fell in love with my stylist. They FINALLY listened to me and I liked every piece! You get 25% off if you buy all 5 pieces, but I only bought the 3/5 that I loved.

I’m going to keep getting boxes because they really hit the nail on the head this time around, but if I get another total bummer then I will probably cancel. The clothes I got were worth signing up, for sure. Stay tuned 🙂 Let me know if you’re thinking of trying/have tried Stitch Fix!

I love social media, I’ve loved it ever since I get tweets as texts to my flip phone and built up my Myspace profile to 4,000 friends.

I naturally became invested in becoming an Instagram influencer and blogger and I love making content and connecting with people. I work in communications. Social media is basically my life and to some that may be pathetic, but to me it’s what makes me happy.

Reaching people, being creative, and pushing myself for my passion is rewarding to me.

I know some people will say kids these days are attached to their phone, put their whole lives of Facebook, and are lazy and dramatic on the internet. But social media is so much more than that. It’s a connection, it’s an influence, it’s fun.

But social media also comes with a lot of pressure. You used to get judged by your in-person appearance, now you get judged on what you put on Facebook, your follower ratio on Twitter, and how many likes you get on Instagram. It’s all very overwhelming especially if you use social media professionally and personally like I do.

A month or two ago I realized how much it was all really impacting me. I was spending hours on Instagram, combing through hashtags and following people and creating perfect photos. And it started eating at me because I felt like my work wasn’t being rewarded. Social media is work for me and a passion project for me, but I recently lost all of the fun and the passion.

I would get visibly upset when I didn’t get any good photos from an event I went to, even if I enjoyed the event it would get overshadowed by lack of likes, the retweets, the comments.

I had to put my life back into perspective. My whole goal with my Instagram in the first place was to influence others to live their best lives, that they don’t have to be perfect but they can still have fun. I wanted others to follow me so I could inspire them. I wanted the likes and comments so I could reach more people. But I lost all of that to number goals and getting wrapped up in not being as good as everyone else.

Other bloggers have fancy cameras, perfectly coordinated shots, and tons of engagement. I don’t have that and it used to be okay because I wasn’t trying to be perfect. But it’s hard not to want to be what those bloggers are, to not compare yourself to their smiles and their lives.

So I’m going back to the basics, still working on growing my numbers but not getting physically upset over them. The goal was and is now again to show people that you can live your happiest life, you can travel and enjoy what you do even when you feel restricted. I want to inspire others and I can’t do that if I’m not inspiring myself first and shrugging off the social media pressure.